Parties solicited to invest in the pre-initial public offering (IPO) funding round for Bitmain Technologies, Ltd., the leading maker of cryptocurrency mining software and hardware, received pitch decks falsely suggesting the company had secured financial backing from Digital Sky Technologies Global and GIC Private Limited, an investigation by CoinDesk has found.
The question is who put those misrepresentations into the pitch decks. CoinDesk was unable to verify the authenticity of the three versions identified and reviewed outside of those who received them because Bitmain has not responded to multiple inquiries concerning their production and dissemination, even though all of them printed the company name and a confidentiality warning on each slide, and two versions prescribed deadlines and methods on bank wiring instructions.
One version of the pitch decks, originally written in Chinese and translated into English by CoinDesk, described Bitmain as having "recently completed a $400 million Series B round of financing from Sequoia Capital, DST and GIC, with a pre-investment valuation of $12 billion" and was forwarded by someone claiming to have access to the deal and knowledge that Bitmain created the pitch deck without offering proof, says a source who came into possession of the copy.